This is the time of year when bakers both amateur and professional tend to find themselves in the kitchen surrounded by pounds of butter and mountains of chocolate chips. For those of you with plans to channel your inner pastry chef over the next couple of weeks, here are some of our favorite holiday cookies.

"We take the insane amount of candy canes my mother sends to the bakery," says Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, "break them up, and fold them into a corn flake-chocolate chip-marshmallow cookie dough with a little mint extract for some serious holiday flair."

Hedy Goldsmith, the James Beard Award–nominated pastry chef at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in Miami, is known for her sophisticated and playful riffs on classic childhood treats, like the delicious peanut butter sandwich cookies on the cover of her new book, Baking Out Loud. Below are her five secrets to making a great cookie.

Have all your ingredients at room temperature.

This allows for the lightest and most delicate cookie. Creaming room-temperature butter traps more air, yielding a better-quality cookie.

Use great ingredients!

Period! Start with great quality and you’ll end up with great results: good-quality chocolate, vanilla beans instead of vanilla extract, good-quality butter, organic products if possible.
(I love... Read more >